ABB, a leading provider of power and automation technologies, has been recognised for the third time by Thompson Reuters as one of the world’s top 100 innovators.

Image credit: www.abb.com

This award acknowledges companies around the world for their outstanding commitment to global innovation, the protection of ideas and the commercialisation of inventions.

“This recognition is a strong endorsement. Innovation is ingrained in the DNA of ABB and a pillar of our Next Level strategy. New technologies are at the core of driving profitable growth through our strategic focus on market penetration, innovation and expansion,” said ABB Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer.

The company revealed its Next Level strategy in September 2014, which envisages profitable growth through focused initiatives on market penetration, innovation and expansion.

The last year has seen ABB achieve technology breakthrough with the development of YuMi – the world’s first robot for full collaboration with humans – which is designed for a new era of automation where people and robots work side-by-side and where safety is built into the robot’s functionality. The YuMi robot will expand the market for robots built specifically to assemble products for the consumer electronics, computer and communications industries.

The company has also developed a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable which more than doubles power capacity to about 2,600 megawatts. The cable can span distances of up to 1,500 kilometres in subsea and underground applications, making the cable ideal for efficient power delivery through densely populated o environmentally sensitive areas.

ABB, which invests about $1.5 billion annually in research and development, has also announced a project utilising the world’s first high-voltage switchgear technology that deploys a new insulation gas mixture as a substitute for sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). This breakthrough reduces the technology’s environmental footprint due to its extremely low potential to contribute to greenhouse gas releases.

The ABB Group of companies operates in roughly 100 countries and employs about 145,000 staff.